Surgical devices are used in various open, endoscopic, and laparoscopic surgeries to transect or coagulate tissue at a surgical site. The devices generally include a handle portion that is gripped by the surgeon using the device, an energy delivery end effector that delivers energy to the surgical site to perform the transection (i.e., cutting) or coagulation, and an outer sheath disposed around the energy delivery end effector so that a distal end of the energy delivery end effector can be selectively exposed and covered during the delivery and use of the surgical device. One exemplary embodiment of such a device is the Endopath® Probe Plus II, manufactured by Ethicon-Endo Surgery, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Existing transection and coagulation devices, however, can be improved to enhance the user experience. For example, in existing embodiments of transection and coagulation devices, deploying the outer sheath to either expose the distal end of the end effector or cover the distal end of the end effector can be cumbersome. In some instances, a surgeon may use a second hand to manually move the outer sheath proximally, i.e., towards the surgeon, to expose the distal end of the end effector or distally, i.e., away from the surgeon, to cover the distal end of the end effector. In other instances a surgeon may move his or her hand from its initial location to use one or more fingers to initiate the distal or proximal movement of the outer sheath. For example, a surgeon often moves their his or her hand away from a pistol grip position, which can be used to initially guide the surgical device to the surgical site, to more of a palming grip that allows the surgeon to keep the surgical device relatively in the same location while using his or her index or middle finger to advance or retract the outer sheath. Once the sheath has been adjusted as desired, the surgeon then returns his or her hand to the pistol grip position to operate various features of the device, such as transecting, coagulating, vacuuming, or irrigating functions. Because the sheath is generally refracted when transecting or coagulating, and extended when vacuuming or irrigating, the surgeon often adjusts his or her grip a number of times during the course of a surgical procedure in order to keep exposing or covering the distal end of the end effector. In addition to this back-and-forth switching between grips being inconvenient, each time the grip change is made, the device may be jostled, thereby causing unintentional damage to surrounding tissue and the like or causing the device to stray from the intended surgical site.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved surgical devices that allow a user to utilize a single grip on a surgical device during the course of a surgical procedure to transect or coagulate tissue.